T
TC
Guest
http://www.abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123869
In the fight against fat, Noreen Hunter is a battle-scarred veteran.
For most of her life she has struggled to lose weight with one low-fat
diet after another.
Hunter, 46, did lose weight, but she always gained it back. In the past
year alone she has regained 50 pounds. No wonder she's thrown in the
towel and is now trying a diet that seems sinful. It's high in fat and
low in carbohydrates.
But to do this, she's had to get over years of brainwashing that says
fat is bad. "You have to de-program yourself to thinking in a different
way, that maybe something else is going to work."
Hunter is part of a diet revolution that is sweeping the country.
That's because for the past 30 years, while Americans have been
religiously following low-fat diets, they've actually been getting
fatter.
But "What If Fat Doesn't Make You Fat?" asks science writer Gary Taubes
in a recent New York Times article in which he addresses what he
considers the bad science that's lured millions to low-fat diets.
"What we believe to be true with such certainty could just be a sort of
mass delusion, wishful thinking that the medical establishment
inflicted on us, and it just snowballed," Taubes told 20/20 in an
interview with ABCNEWS medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson.
A Myth in the Making
"The theory was that a low-fat/high-carb diet would control weight and
help prevent killer diseases. But most of the studies that followed
actually failed to show a direct link between fat in the diet and heart
disease and cancer. But by then it was too late - even science
couldn't shake the prevailing wisdom that all fats are bad, and all
carbs are good," explained Johnson.
By investigating the genesis of this theory, Taubes found that the
government's initial decision 30 years ago to promote low-fat diets was
not based on recommendations from doctors or scientists, but rather
from lawyers who worked for Sen. George McGovern in the mid-1970s.
"They come out with this document and it just sets this ball rolling
where finally some government body is telling Americans to eat less fat
and eat more carbohydrates," Taubes said.
With the release of the government's "Food Pyramid" in the early 1990s,
it was official: the low-fat/high-carb diet was America's food plan.
At the pyramid's base are the foods considered the staple of the
healthy low-fat diet: refined carbohydrates such as bread, cereal, rice
and pasta. At the narrow top - indicating that they should be used
sparingly, if at all: fats and oils.
Fat: Friend or Foe?
There were, however, some lonely voices of opposition.
For one, Dr. Robert Atkins, the now-deceased low-carb guru, said the
government had it all wrong.
The Atkins diet approach, which allows unlimited protein and fats
including meats, cheeses, eggs and butter, eaten along with very
limited quantities of all types of carbohydrates - even fruits and
vegetables - is based on the body's ability to switch its metabolism
from a carb-burning mode to a fat-burning mode once carbs are
eliminated.
Most nutritional experts are wary of Atkins' extreme recommendations
because of the dramatic, and possibly hazardous, changes his diet can
have on the body. Among the many concerns are possible vitamin
deficiencies, dehydration, gastrointestinal problems, and kidney, heart
and gallbladder disease.
"We need to know much more before people start making claims. ...
Shouldn't diet doctors prove safety first, rather than write books and
then say 'OK, prove harm,'" comments Keith Ayoob, spokesperson for the
American Dietetic Association and associate professor of pediatrics at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Striking a Dietary Balance
In the last decade, however, several leading nutritional scientists
have begun to think Atkins may have neen partly right about
carbohydrates, and scientists are now finally studying whether low-fat
diets really work.
"I think it's quite clear that he's onto something important. It does
seem that this substantial reduction in carbohydrate for many people
does make it easier to control their diet over the long run," says Dr.
Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard
School of Public Health.
Moreover, following the low-fat/high-carb diet of the U.S.D.A. Food
Pyramid may not only make it difficult to control weight, it could
actually be dangerous, according to Willett.
"The dietary pyramid was out of date the day it was printed, but it's
even more out of date given the evidence that's accrued since that
time," said Willett. "We have good evidence now that the high intake of
refined starches and sugars will increase risk of diabetes and heart
disease," he added.
Years of diet studies done by Willett and others have apparently found
that healthy people tend to do two things: they actually increase "good
fats" and "good carbohydrates" while cutting down on both "bad fats"
and "bad carbohydrates."
"And here is the big pay-off from a good fat/good carb diet. Not only
is it more likely to be healthy. It may also make it easier to control
our weight. That's because sugars and starches get quickly absorbed
into our blood stream and lead to sudden spikes in insulin levels -
which leads to low blood sugars and increased hunger, which make us eat
more," said Johnson.
That's why many experts now believe that a diet high in bad carbs
actually increases the craving for food in people who are obese.
"These people are actually hungrier than the rest of us. And they're
hungrier because of the way they metabolize carbohydrates," said
Taubes.
In 'The Zone'
For Terri Hill, who weighed more than 200 pounds, success finally came
with another low-carb diet - The Zone - based on a finely
controlled balance of good carbs, good fats and lean protein.
"I felt that this worked better than any of the other diets I had
tried. And I've been eating this balance [40 percent carbohydrates, 30
percent fats, and 30 percent proteins] now for four years. I lost 90
pounds of fat," Hill said. "Your blood sugar levels never go too high
and never fall too low, but they fall in this nice moderate zone."
But are low-carb diets right for everyone? Experts agree, there's only
one way to prove for certain that low-carb is better than low-fat, and
that's with a long-term, randomized clinical trial.
Leading obesity researcher Dr. George Blackburn of Beth Israel
Deaconess Hospital in Boston has funding from the Atkins Foundation for
such a trial, which will compare a traditional low-fat diet with a
modified Atkins diet that emphasizes good fats.
"We don't know whether he's right or not, but at least you know both
the National Institutes of Health and the Atkins Foundation are
interested in finding out," Blackburn said.
"In the meantime, there's plenty of compelling evidence to do the
following," advised Johnson. "Get rid of the refined starches and
sugars ... eat more vegetables and fruit, eat lean protein and healthy
fats. You'll lose weight and feel better and may reduce your risk for
heart disease."
*************
Is this not basically what I've been saying in this ng for about five
years now?
Apologies will now be gratefully accepted.
TC
In the fight against fat, Noreen Hunter is a battle-scarred veteran.
For most of her life she has struggled to lose weight with one low-fat
diet after another.
Hunter, 46, did lose weight, but she always gained it back. In the past
year alone she has regained 50 pounds. No wonder she's thrown in the
towel and is now trying a diet that seems sinful. It's high in fat and
low in carbohydrates.
But to do this, she's had to get over years of brainwashing that says
fat is bad. "You have to de-program yourself to thinking in a different
way, that maybe something else is going to work."
Hunter is part of a diet revolution that is sweeping the country.
That's because for the past 30 years, while Americans have been
religiously following low-fat diets, they've actually been getting
fatter.
But "What If Fat Doesn't Make You Fat?" asks science writer Gary Taubes
in a recent New York Times article in which he addresses what he
considers the bad science that's lured millions to low-fat diets.
"What we believe to be true with such certainty could just be a sort of
mass delusion, wishful thinking that the medical establishment
inflicted on us, and it just snowballed," Taubes told 20/20 in an
interview with ABCNEWS medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson.
A Myth in the Making
"The theory was that a low-fat/high-carb diet would control weight and
help prevent killer diseases. But most of the studies that followed
actually failed to show a direct link between fat in the diet and heart
disease and cancer. But by then it was too late - even science
couldn't shake the prevailing wisdom that all fats are bad, and all
carbs are good," explained Johnson.
By investigating the genesis of this theory, Taubes found that the
government's initial decision 30 years ago to promote low-fat diets was
not based on recommendations from doctors or scientists, but rather
from lawyers who worked for Sen. George McGovern in the mid-1970s.
"They come out with this document and it just sets this ball rolling
where finally some government body is telling Americans to eat less fat
and eat more carbohydrates," Taubes said.
With the release of the government's "Food Pyramid" in the early 1990s,
it was official: the low-fat/high-carb diet was America's food plan.
At the pyramid's base are the foods considered the staple of the
healthy low-fat diet: refined carbohydrates such as bread, cereal, rice
and pasta. At the narrow top - indicating that they should be used
sparingly, if at all: fats and oils.
Fat: Friend or Foe?
There were, however, some lonely voices of opposition.
For one, Dr. Robert Atkins, the now-deceased low-carb guru, said the
government had it all wrong.
The Atkins diet approach, which allows unlimited protein and fats
including meats, cheeses, eggs and butter, eaten along with very
limited quantities of all types of carbohydrates - even fruits and
vegetables - is based on the body's ability to switch its metabolism
from a carb-burning mode to a fat-burning mode once carbs are
eliminated.
Most nutritional experts are wary of Atkins' extreme recommendations
because of the dramatic, and possibly hazardous, changes his diet can
have on the body. Among the many concerns are possible vitamin
deficiencies, dehydration, gastrointestinal problems, and kidney, heart
and gallbladder disease.
"We need to know much more before people start making claims. ...
Shouldn't diet doctors prove safety first, rather than write books and
then say 'OK, prove harm,'" comments Keith Ayoob, spokesperson for the
American Dietetic Association and associate professor of pediatrics at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Striking a Dietary Balance
In the last decade, however, several leading nutritional scientists
have begun to think Atkins may have neen partly right about
carbohydrates, and scientists are now finally studying whether low-fat
diets really work.
"I think it's quite clear that he's onto something important. It does
seem that this substantial reduction in carbohydrate for many people
does make it easier to control their diet over the long run," says Dr.
Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard
School of Public Health.
Moreover, following the low-fat/high-carb diet of the U.S.D.A. Food
Pyramid may not only make it difficult to control weight, it could
actually be dangerous, according to Willett.
"The dietary pyramid was out of date the day it was printed, but it's
even more out of date given the evidence that's accrued since that
time," said Willett. "We have good evidence now that the high intake of
refined starches and sugars will increase risk of diabetes and heart
disease," he added.
Years of diet studies done by Willett and others have apparently found
that healthy people tend to do two things: they actually increase "good
fats" and "good carbohydrates" while cutting down on both "bad fats"
and "bad carbohydrates."
"And here is the big pay-off from a good fat/good carb diet. Not only
is it more likely to be healthy. It may also make it easier to control
our weight. That's because sugars and starches get quickly absorbed
into our blood stream and lead to sudden spikes in insulin levels -
which leads to low blood sugars and increased hunger, which make us eat
more," said Johnson.
That's why many experts now believe that a diet high in bad carbs
actually increases the craving for food in people who are obese.
"These people are actually hungrier than the rest of us. And they're
hungrier because of the way they metabolize carbohydrates," said
Taubes.
In 'The Zone'
For Terri Hill, who weighed more than 200 pounds, success finally came
with another low-carb diet - The Zone - based on a finely
controlled balance of good carbs, good fats and lean protein.
"I felt that this worked better than any of the other diets I had
tried. And I've been eating this balance [40 percent carbohydrates, 30
percent fats, and 30 percent proteins] now for four years. I lost 90
pounds of fat," Hill said. "Your blood sugar levels never go too high
and never fall too low, but they fall in this nice moderate zone."
But are low-carb diets right for everyone? Experts agree, there's only
one way to prove for certain that low-carb is better than low-fat, and
that's with a long-term, randomized clinical trial.
Leading obesity researcher Dr. George Blackburn of Beth Israel
Deaconess Hospital in Boston has funding from the Atkins Foundation for
such a trial, which will compare a traditional low-fat diet with a
modified Atkins diet that emphasizes good fats.
"We don't know whether he's right or not, but at least you know both
the National Institutes of Health and the Atkins Foundation are
interested in finding out," Blackburn said.
"In the meantime, there's plenty of compelling evidence to do the
following," advised Johnson. "Get rid of the refined starches and
sugars ... eat more vegetables and fruit, eat lean protein and healthy
fats. You'll lose weight and feel better and may reduce your risk for
heart disease."
*************
Is this not basically what I've been saying in this ng for about five
years now?
Apologies will now be gratefully accepted.
TC
